Associate Professor Warrick Inder
Name: Warrick Inder
Research Group/Institute: Hormones and Health Group, Princess Alexandra Hospital
Research Interest/Field: Pituitary disease and dysfunction
What made you decide to work in this field? I did my MD in the1990s on the effects of opioids on ACTH secretion. Not much has really progressed in the 14 years since and there is an increasing clinical use of opioid analgesics for non-cancer pain which have significant hormonal effects. There is a need for a large definitive study on the hormonal effects of these commonly used analgesic agents.
What is the goal and significance of your research that you would like people to know? That being on morphine, oxycodone or fentanyl for chronic pain can effect the function of the pituitary gland, leaving people deficient in sex hormones (testosterone in men, oestrogen in women) and in some cases cortisol deficient (the main adrenal gland stress hormone. We want to define who is most at risk of the problem, increase awareness among people who prescribe these drugs and ultimately trial hormonal treatments to determine if they improve the wellbeing of people on these drugs.
If you were at a dinner party and someone asked you what you are researching, what would you say? The effects of morphine and similar drugs on hormone function, and how often these drugs cause low levels of hormones that might need treatment.
How does or how has or how will funding from a Foundation help your research project? This funding will get my project up and running. As a new staff member, I would not have had any other avenue for research funding for the 2012.
What is on your research wish list? To facilitate clinical research on the PA Campus and collaboration between other specialties.
What do you like to do when you're not at work?
Spend time with my family, play and watch sport (Highlanders and All Blacks for rugby, Hawthorn for AFL), camping and bushwalking.
What would you be doing if you weren't a researcher? I also have a busy clinical practice. If I wasn't a doctor, I would be a builder - my father owned a construction company and I would have taken over the family business. I enjoy building and renovation but have little time now and have bought a house deliberately which needs very little done to it!
What are you most proud of? My children.
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